Tuesday Morning - The Fruit of the Spirit

"GENEROSITY"

Galatians 5:22: James 1:17-18

GREETING (adapted from Richard of Chichester, England)

Day by day, dear Lord, of you three things we pray:

to see you more clearly,

love you more dearly,

follow you more nearly, day by day.

HYMN 87 “What Gift Can We Bring”

PSALM 65

PRAYER

(Consider some of the following concerns for prayers of thanksgiving, intercession, and petition. Follow with your personal prayer list.)

Generous nature of God God’s care for our physical needs

Generosity of the church God’s care for our spiritual needs

Generosity of individuals The abundance in nature

To become more generous For abundance in gardens and farms

For more opportunities to be generous For abundance in our grocery stores

For opportunities to sacrifice for others For abundance on others’ tables

For the generous nature in us to make sacrifices For abundance on our tables

God’s generosity of forgiveness Giving generous time to God

God’s generosity of grace Giving generous service to God

God’s generosity of love Giving generous worship to God

God’s generosity of hope Giving abundant praise to God

God’s generosity with spiritual gifts Our complete surrender to God

For cheerful givers _____________________________

For our generosity with our tithes and offerings _____________________________

That we can never out-give God _____________________________

THE LORD'S PRAYER

SCRIPTURE LESSON

(Choose a passage of scripture to read. It can be a chapter, a paragraph, or a particular story. Daily lectionaries are available online or in print that assign a lesson each day from the gospels, epistles, Old Testament and psalms on a three-year cycle. Or you can create a plan to read a book of the Bible, or the whole Bible. Then follow the steps below.)

Read a passage of scripture. Read it out loud, very slowly and carefully as if for the first time. Continue reading until a word, phrase or sentence captures your attention. Stop there to repeat the word, phrase or sentence over and over, listening to it deeply in your heart.

Reflect on why the passage got your attention. Consider the area of your life to which this may apply. Is God saying something to you in this passage? Take time to listen carefully to whatever God may be saying to you.

Respond to God in prayer (or with journaling, music, art or whatever you choose) about what you have heard. Ask questions. Open yourself to God’s will for you.

Rest in God’s company. Be still and quiet. Move beyond thinking, practicing interior silence. Let yourself be open to God’s presence. Savor this moment with God.

PRAYER (with references to Genesis 1:1-31 and John 15:13)

God of eternal mornings, you did not just give us this morning;

but all the mornings when you filled the heavens with stars,

all the mornings when you planted the first life on the Earth,

all the mornings that mark the days of our lives in this world,

and all the mornings that stretch into and throughout eternity.

And, God, you did not give just one bird to greet this new day;

but you gave hundreds and thousands of very different birds,

some dull, others bright, in every hue and color imaginable,

filling every niche and habitat everywhere in all the world,

to sing hundreds of thousands of different songs every day.

And you did not give us just one friend to share this grand day;

but you gave billions of brothers and sisters around the world,

with skin tones echoing the multiple hues of our dusty origins,

and infinite personalities to make our lives dance with variety,

and a multitude of dreams for each one, to make us truly rich.

And you, God, did not just form us inside our mothers’ wombs;

but you guard us in childhood, wrestle with us in our youth,

guide and correct us as adults, and comfort us in our maturity.

And when we fail, you even give your life in Christ to save us.

Then you resurrect us, with a new dawn created from a tomb.

And so, God, today our prayer is not to just become generous;

but to be transformed to give richly as you have given to us.

Bless us with the imagination to give with your wild abandon.

Lead us to the many and various ways of giving extravagantly,

even to the laying down of our lives, as the greatest of all gifts.

This is our prayer, O God, formed in the example of Jesus Christ.

In this new day, may our lives advance to fully live our words. Amen.

SILENCE AND COMMITMENT

(Pause to reflect and listen. Work to push out of your mind any distracting or irrelevant thoughts. Concentrate your thoughts on the words of the hymns and choruses you have sung, the prayers you have spoken and the scriptures you have read. Be aware of what you are feeling. Listen for anything that God might be saying to you in this time you have spent together. As God responds to your prayer-time, seek guidance for how you can best respond to God’s will. Then commit to serving God’s will for you.)

HYMN 587 “Bless Thou the Gifts”

CLOSING PRAYER (with references to Matthew 22:36-40 and Romans 12:1-2)

Thank you, Father, for this glorious new morning,

fresh with new opportunities to join you in your work.

Keep us constant in loving you throughout the day.

Make us bold in loving every friend, stranger and foe.

Awaken us to the needs and troubles of neighbors.

and let us be like salt and light to them in every need.

We pray you spare us from cross-carrying today,

but if you will it, let us do it with joy and confidence.

As Jesus gave his life for us and our loved ones,

so we today offer our lives to you as living sacrifices,

which is the true and spiritual worship you desire.

Today is the time in which we declare our love to you. Amen.